If we look at the Tuesday, April 17th School Advisory Board Election in Newark, it might seem to be more of the same: only about 8 percent of the registered voters turned out to send three people, two from one ticket, one from another, to a board that can make no real decisions. On its face, no deviation from the ordinary politics and patterns of voter participation that has typified Newark for many years.

But actually, the Children First ticket reached an important political milestone in this election.

The journey began in 2011. The Children First ticket, representing a coalition of black and Latino elected officials; labor leaders, and community leaders of all colors throughout the city but mainly in the South, Central and West Wards, halted the North Ward domination of Advisory Board elections by taking 2 out of 3 seats from the Steve Adubato team. In “Election ’12” Children First once again took two more seats from an Adubato-Cory Booker supported team, putting themselves only 1 seat shy of a clear majority-voting block on the Board.

This potential power block has several implications. Adubato, and Booker have been defeated twice, and must win all three seats in 2013 to maintain a slim one-vote majority on the Board. Children First needs to win only one new seat to have 5 votes.

The current Board, along with members of the Coalition for Effective Newark Public Schools, has filed separate lawsuits to force the state to relinquish power and restore local control to Newark to manage it own school district affairs. It seems inevitable that Children First will assume power over personnel and finances at NPS no later than April 2013 if the NJ Supreme Court rules in Newark’s favor. Oral arguments are set for fall of this year.

But “Election ‘12” reflected another milestone in school politics. In 2011, the voter population was infuriated by school closings, and co-locations of charter schools in traditional public schools. In 2012, Newark School Superintendent Cami Anderson added a new chapter to this continuing story, by announcing the closing of 6 more schools, the advent of even more charter schools, and the continuing diversion of more and more public school money away from the regular public schools that must educate the vast majority of Newark’s school children.

And so “Election ‘12” was a second popular referendum on this version of “school reform”. Newark community residents, who are outraged by the vision of entire struggling school populations uprooted and moved to other struggling schools without any apparent added value, came out and voted.

Yes, some of these community people may have been very vocal and loud at Board meetings. Or they may have suffered in anger at home, since all the decisions had been made. But these and other people used the voting booth as their most potent platform for expression, traveling from ballot positions 1 (DeNiqua Matias), to 5 (Marquis Aquil-Lewis), to 10 (Ariagna Perillo), in disciplined fashion to methodically express their outrage. It was indeed a milestone that Perillo, at the end of the ballot, lost by 7 votes, which would have given Children First the first “sweep” in its young history.

In voting for Children First, the people answered the question, “What do you want instead?” In several candidate debates, all contestants articulated their platforms, and so none could simply be against the others who ran. The Children First Team members called for, among other things, a well trained and culturally competent teacher force; academic and social supports for the entire student population, such as math and language arts tutors and social workers; school curricula driven by more than just test preparation; meaningful electives for all students; music, art and drama teachers as a budget priority; and meaningful parent engagement.

Conversely, the voters rejected candidates who relied upon slogans, and voted for those people who were recognized as servants to the community. They rejected appeals from certain community leaders based upon fear, and opted instead for common sense and enlightened self-interest.

We should remember this election as one that reflects the continued growth and political maturity of the Newark voter population, and its new young leadership.

Junius W. Williams, Esq. is the Director of the Abbott Leadership Institute at Rutgers University Newark.